Confections (adorned) #10, 2010 by Amy Stevens
Our culture's intrigue with the consumption of food presents itself in many ways in art. In Wayne Thiebaud's work, the sense of nostalgia prevails as viewers fondly remember gorging themselves on the sugary sweets of their childhood. Martin Parr approaches food stuffs stacked on grocery shelves happily snapped up by senseless shoppers. And of course, we cannot forget blogs like This is why you're fat, for reminding us that in fact, in some way, we are all gluttons who want to have our cake and eat it too.
Untitled (meringue, from the series British Food), 1995 by Martin Parr
Contender Amy Stevens combines all three of these concepts in her series Confections. In this body of work she has photographed upwards of seventy homemade cakes commenting on the domestic realm of creating and consuming. She writes about her series:
Cakes are the centerpieces of celebrations and symbolic trophies evoking nostalgia and awe. Historically, cake has played a significant role in women's lives. Women have used cake as both an outlet of creativity and a symbol of female power politics. In my constructions of these photographs, I am commentating on not only cake itself as a rich cultural symbol, but of the domestic fantasy world of contemporary home decorating and cooking magazines and television shows. It's a fantasy world where entertaining, cooking and decorating unite. It's a place where one needs to have a beautiful home, decorated seasonally, in order to entertain friends with gourmet meals and elaborately concocted desserts.
Despite the cakes' seemingly exaggerated and over-the-top decorations the creator has achieved an impressive level of mastery; she clearly knows her craft. Amy emphasizes the gendering of the images with references to cooking and baking magazines which are stereotypically targeted at women. She also references women's struggles with food and body image and presents this duality: Although women are faced with internal debates about body image, the realm of cooking and comfort is gendered as female making it difficult to balance desires and the media's influence of idealized body proportions.
The colors in the images are made to be saturated, shocking (and possibly intentionally unappetizing), in what may be a reference to the unnatural colors of Parr's work and the color-rich marketing approaches of today's food companies. Despite this, I feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and excitement about the food laid before my eyes. All I want to do is take a giant slice, plop down on the coach and watch a marathon of Bette Midler movies.
Confections #65, 2010 by Amy Stevens
You can see more of Amy's work on her website.